Fairy Party

It is my experience that when you have a daughter there is a short list of parties you begin planning early on.  A fairy party was high on my list.  I knew each child would get wings, and each child would get a fairy.  I looked, and priced, and looked...and looked...this was not going to be easy on a budget.  I also wanted Megan to be old enough that she might actually remember the party.  So I had 5 years to plan.  My friends know that this is normal for me...I have a problem. 

I found these adorable felt fairies online and of course fell in love.  The problem was cost.  So I sat down with my clothes pins and a pile of felt and tool and came up with my own version.  I made cute little gnomes for the boys. OF course...

But where would they live, how would they sleep what would they eat?  How would the children play with them?  Well they needed little fairy tents of course.  So then I had my glue gun, and a ton of glue, and a pile of fabric scraps from various projects I had quilted. I set out to make some tents...and this is where it begins to spiral into an over the top "Werner" party.

I mean I could have easily just made the right number of tents and fairies and been done with it, but they were so cute and fun to make I just kept going...and going...Oh goodness I had a lot of tents and fairies. hahaha  So I asked my sister who is a phenomenal graphic designer to help me make some adoption papers for each gnome and fairy.  They had a story and description of the fairy and gnomes personality, birthday, job, interests, and best animal friend.  I figured this way the kids could choose which one they wanted.  That is when the party took shape.

...So we will start at the beginning now...

Lunch was an Uncrustable, vanilla yogurt with sprinkles, goldfish crackers, & half of a banana.  Their drink was served in a glass rimmed with white chocolate and rainbow sugar.  Side note...maybe not the best idea.  They did try to eat it off and I was freaking out they would break their teeth...maybe try in advance the juice of a lemon wedge. If it works for a margarita it may work for this.

 I had a last minute stroke of genious to put my woodland Isabelle Bloom statues on the table.  They really gave it that final woodland touch I was going for.  The small bouquets of flowers in the mason jars would be used later for the fairies.  So it was nice to be able to double up on those as decorations and part of the favor experience.  I purchased them from Walmart as .99 cent bouquets.

I used find gold glitter to give everything a good dusting.  The tablecloth was white plastic so I knew I could just pick it up and toss it.  The wooden place cards would double as markers when they chose their fairy tents.

I purchased the wood medallions at Hobby Lobby and then wood burned the names into it.  Let me tell you how easy that was...um no....that was some hard wood.  I went with the child like font out of necessity. lol

The girls got purple wings and the boys were given gnome hats.

I like to have an activity the kids can do independently while I welcome guests and finish up last details...like photographs of things un-messed with. lolol  I know that is not a word.  In case you have not noticed I type like I talk.  Someday when I really have time I will go back and look for mistakes in these posts.  I am sure I will be mortified!  Anyway, I digress...So for this party I had a table set up with fairy coloring pages and crayons. - Sorry for the dark picture.

I should add that I again had a creative way to block the upstairs...it really cuts down on the after party clean up if no one goes up and gets into the kids rooms.

After the little gnomes and fairies were done eating it was time to begin the Fairy Selections!!!  This was the part I could not wait to witness.  I just was dying to see who they all chose.

I began by explaining the procedure.  That they would be given some time to walk around and read all of the tent's adoption papers with their moms or dads.  That the fairies were hiding inside of the tents and would not be able to come out until the adoption was finalized with the kids signatures.  They were just to nervous to show themselves until they knew who they belonged to.  I had put a tea light in them so they twinkled and the fairies were also inside the tents.

I chose to do it this way because I know kids have color favorites and I feared they would get their heart set on a certain one and there could be tears.  Plus I really wanted them to have that little extra surprise and magical anticipation!  Once they knew which one they wanted they were to put their wooden medallion/ place card over the top of the tent marking it.  It gave them time to explore, change their minds, and know that no one was going to steal theirs...also an opportunity for adults to step in and help if two kids chose the same tent.

When all of the tents had been selected we read and signed each child's adoption papers.  Then we carefully took out each fairy to introduce them.  It was adorable!  Possibly ran a little long for 7 and under, but that's OK we got through it.

Once the fairies were all introduced to their new friends we needed to gather their Lost Things!  So each child was given a turquoise carton and a list of items that were needing to be found.  They went down to the mainland (aka basement) to locate them all.  When they were done they came back upstairs to get a bed.  The bed was a fern with a dew drop on it for their fairies drinking water.  They also chose a flower, because fairies love the nectar.

 

After the activities were complete we celebrated with dessert and birthday cake.  The Grandma's were so sweet to help pack up each child's tent, fairy, and Lost things into a special take home bag.  That way nothing got left behind.

I will end with a picture of the invitation my sister designed.  I just LOVED it.  It was perfection.  I could not have pulled all of this off without her added touches.  I am so grateful and very lucky.

Here's to Faith, love, and Pixie Dust...until next time!